It All Came Tumbling Down
by Nightscare0
Summary: AU. A Short OS from Charlie's POV. A small glimpse into the life of the Swan household before the sparkly vampires ever made an appearance in Forks, WA. Bella's apparent apathy towards marriage would be more understandable if only she had been a bit older


**A/N: ****Before ****you ****start,****I ****am ****well ****aware ****that ****in ****the ****Twilight ****Series ****Bella's ****parents ****split ****when ****she ****was ****just ****an ****infant. ****I ****get ****it. ****However, ****in ****my ****personal ****opinion ****I ****don't ****think ****that ****she ****would ****be ****that ****traumatized ****against ****marriage ****as ****an ****institution ****when ****she ****wasn't ****old ****enough ****to ****remember ****the ****actual ****event. ****So ****here ****enters ****my ****artistic ****license, ****and ****a ****small ****glimpse ****of ****the ****Swan ****household ****as ****it ****could ****have ****been ****if ****Bella ****was ****a ****little ****bit ****older.**

**Disclaimer: ****I ****do****n't ****own Tw****ilight ****or ****any ****of ****its ****characters. ****That ****means ****no ****money, ****no ****recognition, ****no ****free ****swag ****at ****conventions, ****etc. ****Sole ****property ****belongs ****to ****Stephanie ****Meyer. ****I ****merely ****play ****with ****her ****genius.**

**Thank ****you ****to ****my ****two ****wonderful ****Beta****'****s: Little . blue . pen ****& ****Evelyn-shaye ****from ****Project ****Team ****Beta. ****Words ****cannot ****adequately ****express ****my ****gratitude!**

_**It **__**All **__**Came **__**Tumbling **__**Down**_

Charlie had been preparing to leave the station when Renee called him earlier, apologetic because she had to work late.

"Hey Babe! Listen, my boss is making me stay to catalog the new shipments we just got in today." He listened as her defeated voice came through the speaker.

Charlie mentally sighed. "Again? That's the third time in two weeks!" He grabbed his keys to his cruiser off his belt and waved to his deputy as he walked out the door.

Now, he was all for Renee rejoining the workforce when Bella started school, and the extra money was always welcome, but her erratic hours were starting to grate on his nerves a little bit. Okay, a lot.

"Yeah, look, I'm sorry." He heard her reply as the distinct sound of something crashing echoed in the background. Her voice faded somewhat as she turned from the phone to yell at the guilty culprit. _"Hey __watch __it! __That __piece __is __worth __more __than __you __are!" _Renee took a deep breath before speaking again. "I'll try to be as quick as possible. Should be no later than ten o'clock, okay?"

Charlie unlocked the door to his cruiser and climbed inside. He had heard this story many times before, but he resisted the urge to argue with her. Outside of work, he was never all that good with confrontation, preferring instead to keep most of his thoughts to himself. And really, that was okay with him. Renee had always been more outgoing and vivacious; it was what had attracted him to her in the first place. He knew that Renee sometimes grew bored with their humble life here in Forks, but maybe he just needed to give her more time to settle down. They were both still young, and they had all the time in the world to figure out this marriage business.

When they had dated in high school, he used to love listening to her talk about hitchhiking across the country, backpacking across Europe, and seeing all the wonders of the world. He never really had an urge to do any of those things, but he loved to watch her animated face as she described the adventures they would have and all the great memories they would make together.

Then Renee ended up pregnant, and Charlie immediately enrolled in the Police Academy. Next came an impromptu wedding in his parents' backyard. Truthfully, it was so quick that most of the wedding was a blur to him.

At first, when Bella was born, every waking moment was focused solely on this tiny helpless little person. Renee would often sit rocking baby Bella in the nursery for hours. He would come home and stand in the doorway watching his two angels, thinking for the life of him it couldn't get any better than this.

Then Bella had turned five this past year and enrolled in Forks Elementary. His little baby was going to kindergarten! Renee had approached him soon after and told him she wanted to get a job. She said that she was going stir-crazy sitting home all day and needed to do something while Bella was in school. When she mentioned that they could use this as an opportunity to start a college fund for Bella, she knew she had him on-board. A recent vacancy in the local police department for a Police Chief had become available, and even though he had no real extensive street training, he was going to apply anyways. As luck would have it, he was the only one who applied and got it by default, though in his mind he'd rather believe that it may have been his excellent marksmanship record and general know-how of the town and residents that helped tipped the scales in his favor.

Now her job was taking up more and more of her time. Not to say she wasn't a loving wife and mother, because she was. It was just that Charlie was beginning to see more and more of that look in her eye: that wanderlust that she used to have before they got married.

Renee cleared her throat on the line, and Charlie broke from his reverie. When she spoke again, he could hear genuine regret lacing her tone. "Baby, I am sorry." She spoke quietly. "I know this job isn't necessarily the most ideal, but it's not forever, and we really could use the extra money."

She was right. Being the Chief of Police in a small town like Forks wasn't as prestigious as it sounded. Nothing really ever happened here. Of course there were always your run-of-the-mill drunks, and occasionally a lost hiker would surface to break the constant monotony. He rather liked small town living, but budget cuts over the last year had already reduced the force to him and two part-time deputies. Let's just say that salary increases for an outdated police force weren't high on the town council's agenda.

Feeling somewhat guilty, he decided not to give her a hard time about it. "It's okay hon. Don't worry about it." He placed his keys in the ignition and listened as his cruiser came to life. "You do what you've got to do, and I'll go pick up Squirt from daycare. I'll see you when you get home, okay? I'll even save some dinner for you," he said with a smile.

Renee's relief was evident. "Alright then, I've got to get back to work. Give Bella a goodnight kiss for me!" she chuckled. "Love ya!"

Charlie replied in kind and shook his head. With a deep sigh, he put the cruiser in gear and drove off to pick up his baby girl.

He arrived at Bella's daycare and helped her buckle herself into her booster seat. Yeah, he knew the sight of a police officer riding around with a hot pink car seat in the back of his cruiser wasn't going to spark fear in any hardened criminal's heart, but he was the Chief; who was going to give him a hard time about it anyways?

He drove along the familiar path home, occasionally glancing in his rearview mirror and smiling at his little girl. He listened to her chatter on about school, the arts and crafts they did today, and how she was too old for nap time.

For dinner, he ordered a pizza, and then he helped Bella with her homework. He had to stifle a chuckle at the sight of his daughter hunched so determinedly over her writing tablet, practicing her capital A's. She was concentrating so hard, and the tip of her tongue was sticking out as she carefully and methodically brought her pencil up and down to make a complete letter. Finishing, she held up her paper, her brown eyes sparkling triumphantly. "Look, Daddy! I did it!"

"Way to go, Bells!" He gave her a high five.

Afterwards, it was bath time and a quick story before bed. In all honesty, this was his favorite time of the day. This was their time. He didn't have to worry about day-to-day stuff as he and Bella lost themselves between the pages of one of her storybooks. He always felt a small amount of pride that, in Bella's eyes, Renee could never do story time as well as he. "Mommy's voices never sound right," she had whispered conspiratorially to him after Renee volunteered to read to her one night. So from then on, it was their nightly ritual, while Renee had been relegated to tucking-in duty.

"Time for sleep, Bells," he said as he tucked her blanket around her small form. He leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"But Daddy, I want to wait up for Mommy!" she replied and then yawned.

"No can do, Squirt," he said affectionately as he smoothed a stray hair off of her forehead. "It is nighty night time, and also a school night. I forgot that once and you got me in trouble with your mother," he mock scolded her. She pouted a little, but was interrupted by another big yawn.

He rose from his seat on the bed and walked to the doorway. Flipping off the light to her room, he gazed at his daughter by the light of her Hello Kitty nightlight as it gently illuminated her features and cast soft shadows across the room. He smiled.

"Love ya, Bells."

From the bed, he heard her soft sleepy voice reply, "Love you too, Daddy."

He gently closed her door and went downstairs to watch the last bit of the Mariner's Game. "_This __is __what __life __is __all __about,__"_ he thought to himself. He felt peaceful. He felt content in the knowledge that, no matter what mistakes he may have made in his life, every moment and every triumph, all of it amounted to that little girl upstairs. She and her mother were his world. He couldn't ask for a better life. With a contented sigh, he settled down in his armchair, picked up the remote, and clicked the game on.

Six months later, he stood there shocked and heartbroken as Renee walked out the door with a tearful Bella clutching her leg.

"I'm sorry, Charlie. I just can't do this anymore," she had told him. "It's not fair to either me or Bella to be stuck in this one-horse town." She looked at him with remorse. "There are so many opportunities out there... and well, I'm suffocating here! I thought I could do this for you, for us, but I was wrong." She paused and mentally bracing herself, she looked him directly in the eyes. "I want a divorce."

No amount of pleading, begging, and cajoling would sway her. It felt as if he were watching everything from afar. Some part of his brain yelled at him to do something, anything! But his body was stuck in a tortured form of stasis.

_Divorce._

_Divorce?_

Was this some bad dream? His eyes were open, but all he could see was the tear-stained face of his baby girl. He needed to say something, anything to make her stay! They could get through this.

_Oh, please god, don't take my baby away!_

By the time he came to himself again, the light outside had turned to dusk, and his heart as he knew it had completely shattered. For the first time in his adult life, he felt actual tears run down his cheeks. Falling to his knees, Charlie Swan sobbed into his hands.

They were already gone . . . .


End file.
